Dad was a veteran – of the Civil War

Stella Mae Case, 90, displayed a biography of her father, John Harwood Pierce, and other memorabilia at her Rancho San Diego home. Pierce, a veteran of the Civil War who led an unusual life spanning five marriages and several professions, was 70 when Case was bor

Stella Mae Case, 90, displayed a biography of her father, John Harwood Pierce, and other memorabilia at her Rancho San Diego home. Pierce, a veteran of the Civil War who led an unusual life spanning five marriages and several professions, was 70 when Case was born. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)

Stella Mae Case, 90, displayed a biography of her father, John Harwood Pierce, and other memorabilia at her Rancho San Diego home. Pierce, a veteran of the Civil War who led an unusual life spanning five marriages and several professions, was 70 when Case was born. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)

CIVIL WAR BY THE NUMBERS

100 Estimated number of “real” daughters and sons of the Civil War still living

90 Age of local daughter,Stella Mae Case

70 Age of Stella's fatherwhen she was born

0 Number of Civil War widows still alive. Last known one, Alberta Martin, 97, died in 2004.

SOURCES: Sons and Daughters of Union Veterans; Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy

John Harwood Pierce was born in 1848 on Feb. 29, leap day, an unusual start to an unusual life.

Soldier, poet, inventor, publisher, showman – he left a legacy that amuses his family when it isn't flummoxing them.

“I think I must have realized even at a young age that he was quite a character,” said his 90-year-old daughter, Stella Mae Case, who lives in Rancho San Diego.

She is a big part of the legacy, one of only a sprinkling of people still alive in the United States whose fathers fought in the Civil War.

Yes, the Civil War. Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, Sherman and the March to the Sea, Grant and Lee at Appomattox. Ancient history to most of us.

The war ended in April 1865, almost 144 years ago. Anyone doing the math might guess Pierce was well along in years when Stella was born.

He was 70. His wife was 35, except she wasn't really his wife, not legally, because he was married to someone else. Like Stella said: He was a character.

Pierce died seven years later, leaving Stella with only fragments of memory. Like staying with him at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where he was the resident Santa Claus. Or seeing him in his Civil War uniform for Memorial Day parades.

Later, when she was grown and married and had kids of her own, she would sometimes share those memories in conversation. She told her youngest child, Barbara, that she wished she knew more about her dad.

She told the right person. Barbara Case has a master's degree in library science from the University of California Berkeley and worked for 30 years as a research librarian at California State University Los Angeles. She knows how to navigate rivers of information.

So that's what she did, wading into one of the busiest genealogical streams in the country. People everywhere take pride in their ties to the Civil War.

In San Diego, there is a group for women whose ancestors fought on the Union side and one for women whose relatives fought for the Confederacy. (Organizers who invite both groups to the same event sometimes station them on opposite sides of the room, just in case.)

There are separate organizations here for the men, one Union and one Confederate. All four groups usually get together on Memorial Day for a ceremony at Mount Hope Cemetery.

“I always feel like you owe something to these ancestors,” said Susan Zimmer, president of the local Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War branch, which celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this week. “They did something that was pretty brave, went through some pretty terrible times. I think we need to respect that.”

Most of the local sons and daughters are several generations removed, more like great-great-great-grandsons or great-great-great-granddaughters. In their circles, Stella Case is known as a “real daughter,” and she's a celebrity. (Even though she couldn't attend Tuesday's centennial celebration in Balboa Park, she was listed in the program and her picture was featured on a display table.)

The record-keeping is spotty, so it's not known how many “real” sons and daughters are still living, but it is believed to be about 100. The national headquarters of the Daughters of Union Veterans lists 21 women, including Stella.

Barbara Case didn't know about any of that when she started her research about 15 years ago. “Mostly I did it out of love for my mother,” she said. “I wanted to fill in the pieces for her.”

Fortunately, some Pierce papers and photos were still in the family. She came across an autobiographical poem Pierce wrote when he was 42, which provided leads for further research. She gathered old newspaper articles about him.

The Internet provided a way for her to find people, and for them to find her. A guy in Poland doing his doctorate on turn-of-the-century pneumatic conveyances contacted her once; Pierce had noodled with the idea of an underwater tube that would ferry people from New York to London.

She eventually put together a Web site (bushwah.com/names/jpierce.htm) that traces Pierce's life. It explains how he tried to enlist in the Union Army when he was 14, got turned down twice because of his age, and finally was allowed to join the 11th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. (The National Park Service registry of Civil War vets lists a John H. Pierce as having served with the 11th Cavalry.)

It details his life after the war, including stints as a teacher, a newspaper reporter, an inventor of mechanical bells, a critically acclaimed lecturer on stages in New York, a minister . .

“The thing that struck me was the arc of his life,” Barbara Case said. “He saw the introduction of electric lights, the transcontinental railroad, telephones, automobiles, airplanes, motion pictures. It's staggering how many important parts of history he touched.”

She also documented his romantic adventures and misadventures – five marriages, some of them simultaneous. He had five children, some out of wedlock. Stella was the last, born in 1918.

“It hurts to say it, but he was something of a con man,” his granddaughter said.

When she was finished with her research, she presented it to her mother. Stella Case would no longer have so many bare spots in the family tree.

Unfortunately, though, she is not able to fully appreciate what her daughter uncovered.

“The sad thing is that in between when I started this and I finished it,” Barbara Case said, “my mother has had a number of medical events, and she's lost most of her ability to retain memories.”

Show Stella a printout of the material from the Web site and she can read it and understand it, and she recognizes her father. Ask her about it a short time later and she might not know what you're talking about.

On a recent weekday morning, at an East County retirement facility called La Vida Real, Stella sat in the living room of the tidy unit she shares with her husband, Charles, who is 97.

They've been married 73 years. They met when they were seated next to each other at a political rally in Los Angeles. She dropped her program, they both reached for it, and their hands touched.

“My heart stopped,” Charles said, “and that was it.”

Stella had a hard childhood after her father died. Her mother had a nervous breakdown and never fully recovered after learning that Pierce was married to someone else. Stella got shuttled around to different foster homes.

But when she talks about “Charlie” and their four children, she smiles. “It's been a good life,” she said.

Asked what it meant to her to have a father who fought in the Civil War, she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. “My dad was already an old man when I was born,” she said. “The Civil War didn't really affect me. It was already over.”

Her husband knew better. He caught her eye, leaned forward and reminded her: “To be one generation removed from the war, and still be alive, that's quite a leap. The war was 1865. This is 2009. Pretty soon there won't be anyone around who can make that leap.”